The relatives of Kerry Baird, 34, who was killed on Henry Street on April 13, said he was murdered after he refused to choose sides in an ongoing gang war in the area.

Speaking with the media at the Forensic Science Centre in St James, a female relative said Baird spoke and limed with everyone in the area.

She said Baird was upset, though, after one group of men told him he had to “pick a side.”

She said he refused and told them he was a father of a six-year-old girl and wanted to focus on being a good father.

“He realised that kind of life does only end one way – is either jail or death – and he didn’t want that. His daughter was his everything and he said he want to live for her.”

She said Baird got a full-time job as a security guard, worked in construction on the side and stopped liming with the men, who were affiliated with a gang.

“He refused to link with certain guys and he just cut them off. He showed them that he chose to work and make money, and what they chose to do, he didn’t want to be on that.”

The relative said Baird decided to cut ties with some of the people he limed with in Upper Laventille, but this came at a cost.

Baird became a target and the relative said it wasn’t long before gunmen shot at him.

“They wanted to get rid of him because he cut them off…Since he separated himself from them, they see him as an enemy. He used to hang out with them and he realised it wasn’t making any sense, because the life them living was going to make him die.”

The relative said his determination to stay on the straight and narrow was what led to his death.

After the attempt on his life Baird moved out of the area, but the relative believed the same people tracked him down and shot him near his workplace on April 13.

“He decided to want to change his life and his friends and just stick to himself and work and see about his daughter. She made him make a big change.

“But changing his life and his friends led to his death.”

She said since his death she keeps replaying voice notes she received from him and listens to them “over and over.”

The relative said the shooting has left the family rattled and she is now prepared to leave Trinidad and Tobago.

“It making me feel to migrate. I feel to leave my government job and just go. Because it's like as you turn, is somebody (grieving). If it's not somebody I know, now it's me who feeling it now.

“It is sad, really sad. It hurts. You look over your shoulder every time. People just don't care about life any more. They don’t care.”

Baird was the only breadwinner in his household and she said his death has affected his entire family emotionally and financially.

“(His daughter) is in second year. She just turned six on April 1 and they killed her Daddy days after. We have to see about her now and help her mother buy books and buy food and stuff.”

She urged gang members to stop the violence.

“It don’t make sense killing one another. Everybody just losing their life and then leaving relatives to grieve. That don't make no sense.”

She